One of my mother-in-love’s, favorite evening pastimes is to take her time putting together jigsaw puzzles. She apparently has done this for years and loves to do it. The process is sometimes long and may take her a couple of days, or possibly weeks to complete. It’s an evening wind-down pleasure. She likes the doozies so the task at hand requires focus, concentration and a load of patience. She is blessed with such qualities.
There are truths we can learn about focus, small pleasures and patience. Life as a puzzle, in general as the metaphor, is probably over saturated. Like the pieces of our life puzzle, so are the days of our lives….
I love puzzles. I have always loved puzzles. As a middle school child I would exchange letters with my cousin in San Franscico. She also had a love of puzzles and we would design our own word finding puzzles, cross-words, and mazes and send to each other. I looked forward to all these quirky letters. She was about 4 or 5 years older than I so her puzzles were so much better. I learned a lot from her and tried to emulate as much as I could. It was sometimes a puzzle to understand and reverse engineer her puzzle. I was addicted. My brain is wired to enjoy problem solving.
I then found the crossword puzzle books, (intermixed with my Alfred E Newman magazines) the puzzle world mags, TV Guide’s crossword, and logic problem books as a teen. I kid you not, ask my momma, I would eat my frosted mini-wheats every morning to a crossword puzzle. Even in the earlier parts of college this was my morning ritual.
Just because my morning ritual changed over the years my love for puzzles only expanded. I love the challenge. I love finding patterns. I suppose it’s the main reason I got into UX. First, humans are a puzzle and then bring in some tech to interact with and the puzzle just elevated in difficulty. It’s frustrating and fun.
The Puzzler and a Favorite Puzzle
Most people I know have heard the love story of Lisa and Ty and the Art & Wine Faire, circa 2018. Ty was the puzzle peddler; Lisa the wine consumer. We have similar, yet different versions of said story. Ty makes me out to be the puzzle Queen who danced into his life (figuratively and literally as I danced into the tent while band was playing). I humbly disagree that I am the puzzle Q but I do agree on the dance.
He has samples out to play at his booth. Beautiful puzzles! Perhaps it was luck. Or perhaps it was liquid courage. True I did solve a couple of his puzzles reasonably quick, trust me, not less than 2 minutes as he would have you believe.
I should know. Perhaps, I may had solved them in my head, though, and then fiddled around just to stay at his table. :)
I see shapes and geometry. I’ve lost much of my intrigue to do math though it is high on my scale for it’s elegance and beauty - at times [see what i did there?] My husbands puzzles are filled with beauty and charm. Yes, charm. Yes, like my husband.
Acute. Obtuse. Isosceles. Right Angled. These triangles all have their place. Except Equilateral. He just doesn’t make any sense. No one has time for an equilateral triangle. What about unnamed and untamed triangles? The randomness of it all. Yes, the random triangle.
Ohhh-stomachion.
It is beautiful. It is ahh-mazing. We are lucky to even know about the Stomachion at all- it was almost lost forever. The Stomachion puzzle or Ostomachion, or the other referenced name of loculus Archimedius puzzle was an attraction, at my now husbands, puzzle table. It is a web of shapes, 14 to be exact, whereas you attempt to create a square with these shapes. This square can be made 536 different ways (“and not just mirror image ways”).
Around the 13th Century, an Archimedes manuscript was found hidden in a prayer book (repurposing of parchment was very common then). How exactly it was found is a puzzle itself. There is a Ted talk of the incredible story, Revealing the Lost Codex of Archimedes, and if you have 14 minutes it is well worth the watch. While fascinating a story it is, I am more attracted to the puzzle itself. Thoughts are that Archimedes had bigger thoughts of combinatorics. Combinatorics is a math puzzle of finding the number of ways a given problem can be solved with well-defined constraints.
It’s the random triangle that I see. When I try and solve this puzzle, I search for the random combinations of shapes to make a shape. I see them in my head. Puzzling indeed. Does one just look at angles that fulfill a certain condition? Possibly.
My engineering mind approaches puzzles by attempting to look from the inside out, the top down, and the completeness. And sometimes it works rather well.
Sorry, no jigsaw. And no, this puzzle is not like the Rubik’s cube.
I have never been a fan of the jigsaw puzzle. It was around the house growing up. It was around my circles, and like I mentioned, it is a staple in my in-laws home. I can only guess that it is the flatness that turns me off. I will do a jigsaw, happily. I will not purchase a jigsaw. Maybe it’s all those unwritten, yet required rules.
Put the outer edge together first. Put the inside pieces outside face-up.
No single pieces in the middle, must have a partner with it.
No vultures allowed. Don’t come swooping in at the ninth hour, eyeing the last 10 pieces, and solve the puzzle.
Sorting agreement upfront. color, edge, designs…ugh.
Divvy up space for each person. Do not work on someone else’s part of the puzzle without proper eye contact and agreement.
Everyone has their strengths. Don’t take over.
Yeah, i’m about to break every last one of these rules at some point. These are the unspoken rules I could think of utilizing my very limited interaction with jigsaw puzzling, and that says something in that I have witnessed and lived these perceptions. I’d love to hear other unwritten rules that I have not picked up on, but I think i’m right on track that this breed of puzzler has an uncanny ability to reprimand on rules that are not on the back of the puzzle box.
I have also never been a fan of the Rubik’s cube. Sure, I owned one when they first came out. That was my childhood toy era. I just never felt the gravitational pull. Many, many, many people do not feel that pull - yet it is perhaps the most referenced and purchased puzzle (uh, toy) - ever. It has a massive reference point. Like ALL puzzles ever made need to be referenced to the Rubik’s cube. Like it was the blueprint or something.
Recap of Rubik’s cube puzzle goal: to make each side of the cube one solid color.
The Snake puzzle. Well, it IS a cube. Yup, it has small squares that actually resemble a Rubik’s cube. However, it unwinds to one long strand (typically 3 ft long), small cubes held together by a bungee type cord that has a twist pattern to put it back to it’s original cube form (Rubik’s cube-esque). “Oh, it’s like the Rubik’s cube.”
No. It unravels to a 3 ft long entity that you twist back to a cube. The Rubik’s cube has 6 faces that do not unravel. Each side is a different color. Ok, you do twist the Rubik’s cube but it does not unwind. “Oh, it’s like the Rubik’s cube.”
The Soma cube. Oh, yes another cube. Seven pieces to assemble into a cube. “Oh, it’s like the Rubik’s cube.” Um, there are seven unique shaped pieces that can be put together to create a cube - some 240 different ways. Rubik’s cube one solution. “Yeah, cool, it’s like the Rubik’s cube.”
Dice Cube. Oh heavens. It’s colorful? It has green and red dots. “Oh, it’s like the Rubik’s cube.”
The thoughtless and absent reality comparison even when it’s not a cube…Crazy Four. Crazy Four is a puzzle that has 4 cubes with 4 different colors on the 6 sides. It has four cubes that you arrange in a wooden holder. It isn’t even a cube - but it does have 4 different colors. There’s that. “Oh, it’s like the Rubik’s cube.”
Writing is a Puzzle
Writing is like figuring out a puzzle. Perhaps that is one of it’s lures. Look at the pretty lights Lisa. All the pieces need to fit. You have to place everything in just the right order or else the logic and flow won’t work. Doesn’t matter if it’s fiction or non-fiction. They are different in approach but the puzzle is still there.
With fiction the events need to unfold in a logical fashion. Kinda. The characters need to develop and potentially do things in some order. The plot lines need to intersect and blend as the story develops and your characters grow, perhaps conflict emerges and pops and…well, you get the idea.
If the pieces don’t fit then it’s chaos. Or maybe there’s a hint of disconnect; a whiff that something is sour. You know, something seems a wee bit off. Like placing a jigsaw piece in a place where the image just doesn’t line up but the shape does. Something is definitely wrong. Something just doesn’t feel right.
side-note: I personally like it when pieces don’t fit and a puzzle emerges in the writing. But that’s a different sort of puzzle. That’s a puzzle you have created for the reader and not a puzzling moment for the reader. Have you met my favorite author Italio Calvino?
Deliberately mixing up pieces in a story, like starting with the end or in the middle and bouncing forward and back in time can be an entertaining read. Or you can just confuse the heck out of someone. Some people don’t appreciate that sort of puzzle in their story. Just tell the dang story. Calvino my love.
With non-fiction it’s a different sort of puzzle. You have to decide the order of your explanation. Is it chronological? Is it linear? Is it a mix? There is only one right answer: it depends on the subject, of course.
I grapple with this. As you may or may not have noticed, I intertwine thoughts a-lot. Sometimes well and sometimes not so well. I enjoy placing obstacles in my way. I know. I create my own puzzle inside an already established puzzle. It’s the orchestration of parts. The adjustment and re-adjustment to create a coherent whole. It’s fun to me.
So far, no one has complained.
I can push myself too much and many times I need to let ‘things’ settle. Leave said writing be and let my subconscious work on it while I get other tasks completed. It’s a goal anyway. My mind, curiously, refuses to always let go. As I am not entirely certain that when this ‘settling’ needs to happen, (of what the puzzle is i’m trying to solve), hence, I think my brain can’t let go and it keeps fidgeting. If I can’t see the whole how do I attempt to create?
Once I ascertain the big picture i {does that require capitalization?} can typically navigate myself through the writing-maze. That’s the fun part. This notch works here, but this bit doesn’t. Wrap that rope around this end and push through! Yes, that looks hopeful. Hmmmm, flip that vertically and then horizontally and look, it fits! If I see the puzzle (um, rant) coming to a finality I am able to excitedly place that last piece.
The Evolving Puzzle - Life
The sum total of tiny, minuscule, microscopic and vital pieces make up all complex items. Including the human journey. Experiences can be blue. And acute. Others can be red, green or yellow and square. We have a rainbow of emotions, each with it’s own color, shape and texture. Our personal mural is painted daily - even hourly.
Maybe our journey is more like a massive multi-player sudoku or word jam. Or the journey is combinatorical-ly assumed. The possibilities are endless really. There are events and emotions and rules that change depending on the decision made. There is music and color. Kurt Vonnegut is here somewhere.
Puzzles can be put together the wrong way but that’s how we learn. Sometimes it’s just wonderfully wrong and just needs to be reassessed. Perspective, curiosity and an open mind is typically key to solving any puzzle.
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existence.
One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.
— Albert Einstein, LIFE Magazine (1955)
So I leave you with my puzzle of the day.
Ole’ or Olé
life the puzzle vertically challenged
the rubric
laid
as sprouting seeds
why would we let accuracy drop into mere precision
big ben is watching
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It's not hard...think inside out, upside down and backwards. :)
While my mind is not as quick as yours and many others at solving puzzles I do enjoy them. Jigsaws not so much. Mom enjoyed the challenge of a unique puzzle as well but not jigsaws either. Gifts to her often included some kind of puzzle which she would not allow the answer to be included with. The solution to the puzzle you and Ty gave us was not left with us either. Forgotten in his pocket I think. I know he said he had it. I'm glad he forgot. I leave it out on the coffee table and very few guests actually work on it. One long time friend solved it the 2nd way in a matter of a couple minutes. How I would love to peer inside your minds and see how they work! ;o) I'll try not to be envious of your mathematical genius and giftings. Love you! Kathy